Cambodia’s opposition leader jailed 27 years for treason
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Kem Sokha, former leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, arriving at the Municipal Court in Phnom Penh on March 3 to attend a hearing.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Follow topic:
PHNOM PENH – A Cambodian court on Friday sentenced top opposition leader Kem Sokha to 27 years in jail for treason, a case critics say is designed to bar him from politics
Kem Sokha was the joint founder of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and has long been a foe of Prime Minister Hun Sen – Asia’s longest-serving leader.
“Kem Sokha... is sentenced to 27 years in prison on the charge of collusion with foreigners committed in Cambodia and other places,” Judge Koy Sao said at the court in Phnom Penh.
Immediately after the verdict, the 69-year-old was placed under house arrest, where he will be banned from meeting anyone who is not a family member.
He has one month to appeal against the conviction and jail sentence, Mr Ang Udom, a lawyer for Kem Sokha, told reporters.
The court also stripped him of his right to vote and barred him from running for political office.
Arrested in 2017 in a midnight swoop involving hundreds of security personnel, Kem Sokha is accused of hatching a “secret plan” in collusion with foreign entities to topple the government of Mr Hun Sen.
He has repeatedly denied the charges against him.
Critics say the Prime Minister has wound back democratic freedoms and used the courts to stifle opponents, jailing scores of opposition activists and human rights defenders.
“I cannot accept this ruling,” Kem Sokha supporter Chea Samuon said outside the courtroom.
“It is very unjust for him and the people. He is not guilty; this is political pressure.”
US Ambassador to Cambodia W. Patrick Murphy, who was at the court, slammed the trial and sentence as a “miscarriage of justice”.
Last August, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Kem Sokha during a visit to Phnom Penh, where he also raised concerns about the kingdom’s ailing democracy in talks with Mr Hun Sen.
Kem Sokha – who spent about a year in pre-trial prison and then lived under house arrest until November 2019, when his bail conditions were relaxed – has repeatedly denied the charges against him.
His daughter Kem Monovithya said her father was keen to return to politics ahead of July’s national poll.
“I hope he will be cleared to join the upcoming national election,” she said.
“He is resilient and an optimist. He is very eager to resume his political life to continue to contribute to the building of democracy and prosperity in Cambodia.”
Another lawyer for Kem Sokha, Mr Chan Chen, said his client had been denied freedom and basic rights for 5½ years on “groundless charges”.
Two months after Kem Sokha’s arrest, Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP, once considered the sole viable opponent to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
That paved the way for the CPP and Mr Hun Sen to win all 125 parliamentary seats in 2018, turning the country into a one-party state.
Scores of opposition figures were convicted of treason in 2022, some in absentia – the latest squeeze on opponents ahead of elections.
In February, Mr Hun Sen ordered the shutdown of one of the country’s few remaining local independent media outlets after taking issue with a news report about his son.
Political analyst Bunna Vann said a conviction and jail term would silence not only Kem Sokha but also the opposition voice in Cambodia.
It would strengthen “single-party dominance”, he said.
Exiled opposition figure Sam Rainsy – who has lived in France since 2015 to avoid jail for a number of convictions that he says are politically motivated – said the trial was based on “fabricated charges”. AFP
